Fourth quarter surge leads to Huron win
by Richard Lamb– Advance Editor
Tickets for last Friday?s football game at Gilpin Field should have come with a warning: ?Do not attend if you have a heart condition or cannot take excitement brought on by a tense football game.? The Hurons? (4-1) dramatic 26-22 comeback win over Inland Lakes (2-3) had all of the excitement of a rollercoaster ride, leaving the home fans exhilarated and the visitors crushed as the ride came to an end. ?The kids need to realize that they must play with emotion to be successful,? said Huron coach Mike Kosiara. ?If they play with emotion, they are difficult to beat.?
FRIDAY?S GAME came down to the fourth quarter and which team would get the ball last. With Rogers City trailing 16-6 at the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs crossed midfield and had a first down. A penalty, an incomplete pass and a sack by senior linebacker Jerome Gapczynski forced a fourth down punt and started the ride for the Hurons. That punt set up the first of three Huron TDs in the fourth quarter. Bret Karsten, subbing at quarterback for the injured Chase McLennan, who did not dress for the game, sparked the drive with several key plays. Facing third and eight, Karsten fumbled the snap from center, rolled to his left, then scrambled to the right before finding halfback Kevin Fairbanks open in the flat for a 12-yard gain. On the next play, operating out of the shotgun, Karsten ran for 15 yards for another first down. Then Fairbanks followed the blocks of Gapczynski at right guard and Derek Schleben at right tackle for an eight-yard gainer.
TWO PLAYS LATER, on a first and 15, Karsten again scrambled sideline-to-sideline for a 28-yard gainer to the Bulldog 16, capping the drive three plays later with a seven-yard TD run. The drive used 12 plays, covered 75 yards and used nearly three minutes off the clock leaving the score 16-12, in favor of the visitors with 6:27 left on the clock. A quick three-and-out by the Bulldogs gave the Hurons the ball and a chance to take the lead. Starting at their own 35, and facing a stiff wind out of the south, Karsten connected with Alex Matthews for a 10-yard gainer, then ran around the right side for nine yards on the next play. A short run by Fairbanks picked up another first down for the Hurons at the Bulldog 43. Nine yards up the middle by Dustin Hein and three more by Fairbanks earned the Hurons a first down at the Bulldog 30. That was close enough for Karsten, as he broke several tackles and eluded everyone else in a dazzling 30-yard TD run on the sixth and final play of the drive. With 2:45 left in the game, the Hurons led for the first time at 18-16, after the two-point conversion failed. The score gave the Hurons a lead, but left enough time for Inland Lakes to strike back. And strike back the Bulldogs did, on a 63-yard pass down the right sideline on the first play of the ensuing drive to go up 22-18 with 2:27 left.
?I was wary at that point,? Kosiara said of his thoughts after the Huron TD gave them the lead. ?I thought ?oops, you may have scored too fast. However after Inland Lakes scored I thought we?ve got plenty of time to score.? And he was right. A deep, wind-aided kickoff went to the Huron 10 where Fairbanks caught it and returned it to the 24. >From there, Karsten and the offense went to work again?again needing a long drive to take the lead.
A MOTION PENALTY set the Hurons back five yards before the first play, putting the goal line 81 yards away with 2:17 left on the clock. On the first play, Karsten dropped back, found no receivers open, tucked in the football and bolted all the way to the Bulldog 39 for a 42-yard gain. The speed Karsten used to catch 14 passes for 242 yards and five TDs in the first four games of the season at wide-out served him well in his stint as quarterback. A pass in the direction of T.J. Sobeck fell incomplete with 1:56 showing on the game clock. Karsten then flipped a pass to Hein out of the backfield for a four-yard gainer, setting up third-and-six. Then Karsten recovered his own fumble, but lost three yards, to make it fourth-and-nine from the Bulldog 39, with the clock showing 1:02 as he took the snap for the most critical play of the game. Karsten called his own number on the fourth down play, netting 12 yards to keep the drive alive at the Bulldog 27. Hein gained five on the next play to put the ball on the Bulldog 22 with 45 seconds left.
Karsten rolled out, then cut sharply to the right and was run out of bounds roughly at the 14. A roughing penalty put the ball at the Bulldog 7. Hein carried for three yards, then Karsten scored on the next play, and ran in the two-point conversion to make the score 26-22 with 19 seconds left. Inland Lakes didn?t answer this time as they ran an unsuccessful play as time expired. ?It is a great feeling for us, knowing that we can come from behind in a game and win,? Kosiara said.
KOSIARA HAD praise for Karsten, who volunteered to move from flanker to quarterback to substitute for McLennan, who was banged up from the St. Ignace game. ?That was a relief to me because our backup QB, Chris Cornett, plays such an integral role on defense as nose guard. I was afraid that he would not be able to withstand the pounding of both positions,? Kosiara said. ?What an athlete Bret is! However, the most important aspect was that Bret never quit. He worked within the confines of the offense and did not try to force things.? Karsten passed for 91 yards, completing 8-of-19 with one interception. He finished with 209 yards on 25 carries and three touchdown runs coming within 50 yards of the RCHS all-time single game record set by Bob Kelly in 1990. Kelly rushed for 253 yards on 34 carries in a win over Whittemore-Prescott that season. He went on to rush for 1,417 yards and 27 touchdowns in the Hurons? 9-2 season.
ROGERS CITY DID not start the game with a ton of confidence, as Inland Lakes went up 10-0 after one quarter of play. A safety off a high snap on a punt gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead with eight minutes left in the first quarter. The Bulldog touchdown took advantage of another Huron mistake. Forced to pass or be tackled in his own end zone, Karsten forced a pass, as he rolled to the right, which was intercepted at the Huron 23. That led to a Bulldog TD four plays later. A two-point conversion left the home team trailing 10-0 with 2:55 left in the quarter. Going with the wind in the second quarter, the Hurons marched 61 yards in 13 plays, capped by Karsten?s one-yard plunge with 20 seconds left in the half. The score stood at 10-6, after the two-pointer failed. At that point, it looked as though the Hurons would have momentum going into the locker room at the half. Not so. Inland Lakes returned the ensuing kick off 80 yards to take a 16-6 lead as time ran out in the half, setting the stage for the fourth quarter dramatics. Gapczynski again led the defense with 14 solo tackles, four assists and two sacks. Ryan Darga had a good game on defense, blocking a punt and intercepting a pass from his lineman?s position.
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Statistics: Total offense: RC 311 rushing, 91 passing, 402 total. Inland Lakes 57 rushing, 93 passing, 150 total. Passing: Karsten 8-of-19, 91 yards, one interception. Cornett, 0-for-1, one interception. Receiving: Ferris 3/53/0; Matthews 2/14/0; Fairbanks 1/12/0; Sobeck 1/8/0; Hein 1/4/0. Rushing: Karsten 25/209/3; Hein 7/25/0; Cornett 8/26/0; Fairbanks 7/25/0. Defensive leaders: Gapczynski 14 solo, 4 assisted tackles, 2 sacks; Sobeck 6 solo, 1 assisted tackle; Hein 4 solo, 2 assisted tackles, Darga, 2 solo, 1 assisted tackle, one blocked punt, one interception.